of ontological boundaries between “self” and “other”.
36
“Native” in the quartet is the main character’s construction based on his “seeing” to categorize who the
Belitung people are. Thus, the quartet as a text may contradicts the “real” understanding of the dynamic population in Belitung.
B. Previous Study
The phenomenal success of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet has invited different appreciation from different readers. They give their comments mostly
through the internet while academic reports or journals discussing those novels as a quartet emerge infrequently. Mostly the discussion is only taking one novel
from the quartet. Andreas Akun uses postcolonial approach to discuss Laskar Pelangi 2006 to argue that the novel decentralizes the center dominant
discourse power to empower centralizing the peripheral marginal group.
37
The counter discursive strategy which is developed by the author can be seen from the inverted positioning of the marginalized against the dominating
group. The marginalized here means Belitung’s people as a local and the dominating group is the comers who works and leave in PN Timah a government
company that control the tin mining environment. The marginalized has been represented as overpowering the dominating group, through the representation of
deconstructive teacher images, the used of the myth and science as teasing to criticize the education problems, the Chinese with their positive images and the
use of local language. Those represent the marginal people with their marginalized position may have an opportunity to fight against the dominating
36
Rey Chow, Woman and Chinese Modernity: The Politics of Reading Between West and East USA: The University of Minnesota Press, 1991 p. 3
37
Andeas Akun, “A Local Counter-Discourse against National Education Problems: Postcolonial Reading of Andrea Hirata’s Laskar Pelangi” in Journal Kata, Volume 12, Number 2, December 2010: pp 140-151
people—who have power with their superior mainstream—and they become the winner.
Akun concludes that Laskar Pelangi 2006 is not about how struggle and spirit is important for marginal group to keep surviving in this life, but it is about
how the minority actually have the potential to fight back ideologically the domination of the mainstream. Here, I partly agree with his study, particularly to
fight back the domination of the mainstream. However, his conclusion on “the potential to fight back ideologically the domination of the mainstream”, the words
“the potential” shows the possible ways to fight back. How the minority fulfill their potential way is the question pursued in my study. Moreover, by using
Laskar Pelangi as a quartet, the findings will be more detailed. Therefore, how the minority develop their potential way to fight back the domination of the
mainstream will be more obvious through my study on the ongoing effects of colonialism in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
Another study is conducted to criticize The Laskar Pelangi Quartet, written by Nurhady Sirimorok in his book entitled Laskar Pemimpi: Andrea
Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia The Dreamer Troops: Andrea Hirata, His Readers and Indonesian Modernization published in 2008 by Insist
Press.
38
Sirimorok wants to answer his question why Hirata’s novels become very popular in Indonesia and labeled as Indonesia’s most powerful book. His purpose
is to criticize the quartet by analyzing comments from website. In this case the commentators are varying in profession and also educational background. He
judges the writer as an agent of modernization. Modernity is seen as a label
38
Insist Press is a publisher in Yogyakarta which takes position to criticize formal education in Indonesia. Books that they publish mostly about informal education and critic to formal education in Indonesia, such as: Sekolah Itu Candu by
RoemTopatimasang, Sokola Rimba by Butet Manurung and Sekolah Dibubarkan Saja by Chu-diel.
generates from Western Enlightenment, as the way to show the development of their societies from traditional into modern.
39
The readers of his work are the victims of modernization.
40
It means that to be a successful person, someone should take formal education as the solution, and enter university to take under
graduate program in urban area of the country and continue to graduate program in abroad, then work as an employee.
41
Afterward, they become far away from their own society and only concern with their own life.
His judgments are completed with quotation from the novels, mostly from the main character’s development to convince the readers that his judgment uses
appropriate data. He also uses Orientalism to argue that The Laskar Pelangi Quartet represents the strong influence of Orientalism in the Eastern countries
like Indonesia.
42
It is proven in the writer choice of Paris as the center of knowledge
43
and modernity that refers to Western modernization
44
which are depicted in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. According to Sirimorok, Hirata’s
adoration to the Western countries is too much. The adoration captures in the quartet does not offer good influence to readers. The writer brings the spirit of
colonialism in his work by showing that the Western countries with their people and culture are the best role model in the world.
He also puts into question the kind of dream that the writer sold in his novels. He concludes that dream of modernization is the answer.
45
Sirimorok’s answer cannot be separated from his own background as a literature scholar, and
39
Nurhady Sirimorok, Laskar Pemimpi; Andrea Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia Yogyakarta: InsistPress, 2008 p. 31
40
Sirimorok, pp. 63-64
41
Sirimorok, pp. 15-16
42
Sirimorok, p.129
43
Sirimorok, p. 130-131
44
Sirimorok, p. 77
45
Sirimorok, pp. 44-45
then continued his study in Rural Livelihood and Global Change, Institute of Social Studies, Den Haag, Holland.
Subsequently, his work allows him to do research and become a facilitator for people who live in rural area in South Sulawesi.
46
His intense interaction with rural people supports him to take his position on their side. His lived experience
has influenced him to question whether modernization pattern is appropriate for the people. Therefore, the critic from Sirimorok cannot be separated from his
background and attention to the rural society life. I agree with Sirimorok’s criticism in relation to colonialism and
modernization. However, his critic on the quartet is more to the writer as a person rather than as the main character. He sees the quartet as a memoir, since it is based
on the author’s real life. On the contrary, this present study is to examine the quartet mainly through the main character’s view and attitudes on perceiving and
representing himself and his society to reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism. Here, Akun and Sirimorok have different arguments. While Akun acquires
positive argument, Sirimorok has the opposite by criticizing and giving negative views on Hirata’s novels. Akun applauds Laskar Pelangi 2006 as a single novel
that depicts how the minority has potential to resist the domination of the mainstream. Conversely, Sirimorok concludes that the writer is an agent of
modernization who adores western lifestyle and his dream is modernization itself. Therefore, my study is close to Akun’s in terms of fulfillment of the
potential. Meanwhile, Sirimorok’s research is also similar with my research. However, we have different focus: first, Sirimorok examines the writer as a
person, whereas my study focuses on the main character of the quartet. Second, is
46
Sirimorok, p.168
on the way colonialism is revealed. Sirimorok uses Orientalism to show the spirit of colonialism finds in the quartet through the writer’s Western adoration and
dream. My study will instead reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism by using postcolonial approach to read Laskar Pelangi as a quartet and Orientalism is only
part of other theories. It attempts to examine colonial discourse that operates through the main character’s view and attitudes in Hirata’s novels. In details, this
study explains the way the main character portrays inequality as the consequence of modern colonialism practice and finds out how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet
reveal colonialist ideology. Despite the argument of the researchers above, the fact that the number of
poverty in Indonesia is still high cannot be denied. Therefore, to survive people need power that can stimulate their spirit to struggle. The quartet provides that
power that most people need. Moreover, it is a memoir of the writer’s life, based on his true story. It convinces people to believe that poor people have chances to
obtain successful live. In my final remark, The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as an Indonesian literature is indeed able to inspire many people to struggle with their
life. However, what kind of struggles that people should do, what is the intention of their struggle, how to achieve and what is the result, for gaining better life are
the questions to awaken readers’ awareness besides the popularity of the novels.
C. Review of Related Theories
